Unspoken
by ravens rising
Summary: Before two major events, words are superfluous. Slight Shinji/Hiyori.


Written for Round Three of the livejournal community senkaimon's fic contest. The prompt was Shinji/Hiyori.

Title: Unspoken  
Rating: PG-13  
Word Count: 702  
Warnings: cussing, of course xD  
Characters: Shinji, Hiyori, cameo of Rose and Love  
Pairing: slight Shinji/Hiyori  
Note: I am not happy with this. At all. I really like this pairing, but the muses refused to cooperate. I'm sorry. Also, my old parenthesis disease style decided to attack. ^_^;; Sadly, the thing I'm most proud of about this is I managed to keep Shunsui and Ukitake out of it this time!

"You're stupid."

Shinji ignored her and munched on an apple, savoring the flavor. It had been too long.

Her scowl deepened and she kicked the wall again. "This is stupid."

Shinji hummed an agreement, but that didn't seem to pacify her at all. If anything, it made her more tense, her shoulders hunching in. She pulled uneasily at the hem of her ragged shirt, and he thought he heard another muttered '… stupid.'

The boy understood. He could still feel the flash and the sensation of uncontrolled (but intoxicating) power singing up through his veins. "Yep. That's why I'm leavin'."

Hiyori jerked. "What the fuck?"

"'m gonna be a Shinigami." The boy announced.

Hiyori turned slowly, and met his eyes with her own wide ones. The world froze for a moment with the weight of a hundred (thousand, million) unsaid words.

"Asshole." She scoffed, breaking the gaze and bringing them back to earth. "You? Shinigami? I'll kick your ass. Che!" She clasped her hands behind her and stalked down the alleyway. Yet, she was less tense then before.

Shinji followed dutifully behind her, smirking. She was coming too.

---

"So we're really going to do this?" Hiyori asked with a frown, her legs swinging absently in the air over the edge of the kitchen counter.

Several feet away, Shinji leaned against a table, staring at his hands. His blonde hair had swung forward, and she was prevented from seeing his eyes. Hiyori didn't like it. What was he thinking about? "Yep." He replied.

"Che." She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Why should we help those stupid Shinigami?"

"We're not helping them. We're fighting against Aizen." He responded calmly.

They're dancing the same dance they've been dancing for weeks, complaints and responses coming to their lips with the natural, comforting easy of repetition.

Hiyori snorted. "Yeah, and we'll kick his ass without them!" But her confident words felt hollow, and she knew (but would never admit) that as the decisive battle loomed ever closer, her nightmares of their first disastrous fight against Aizen had increased.

Shinji straightened up, then, and the hair fell out of his eyes. "Of course." He said with his customary smirk, but his eyes were now shadowed by something much darker, and a shiver went up Hiyori's spine. For a moment in time she was again dangling in the air, Shinji's arm holding her up, and she could see the hidden fear in his eyes (that fear of the unknown) as Kensei's hollow roared above them, and she felt terror and confusion burn through her, in both the past and the present. She thought maybe she could feel her hollow coiling in the back of her soul, feeding greedily on her emotions.

"Hiyori." Though that kind of thing never showed on her face, Shinji knew her better than she knew herself, and when she returned to the kitchen, Shinji was standing right in front of her (had he used shunpo, or had she been lost that long?), those dark eyes inches from her face. He slowly leaned over, bracing himself against the counter, arms on either side of her. As he stared at her, his eyes sharpened with furious determination, and his grin this time was true.

"We'll beat them." He said, his breath hot against her lips, and Hiyori was once again grounded fully in the present, Aizen's tentative grasp lost.

"… of course we will, you fucking baldy!" She growled, whacking him across the head.

Shinji yelped in surprise and jumped back. "What the hell was that for?" He flailed, and Rose appeared in the doorway looking exasperated.

"We can't even leave you two alone for a minute, can we?" Love commented wearily, his head popping into view behind the blonde.

Shinji said something in a sulky tone of voice as he rubbed his head and he walked toward the pair, but Hiyori didn't hear, their words fading into an ignored hum in the background. Something that might have been a smile (but it wasn't, _of course_, since this was _Hiyori_) flickered across her face, and she glanced at the floor through lowered eyelids.

She knew she would have no more nightmares.


End file.
